Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a snow removal device, a vehicle, and a track transportation system.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2014-183099, filed on Sep. 9, 2014, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Description of Related Art
As a new means of transportation other than a bus or a railway, a track transportation system traveling on a track using running wheels made of, for example, rubber tires, is known. Such a track transportation system is generally referred to as a new transportation system or an automated people mover (APM).
A vehicle employed in this track transportation system is equipped with, for instance, power collection parts provided for a lateral portion thereof, and a guide wheel installed in parallel with the power collection parts. Trolley wires for supplying the vehicle with power via the power collection parts and a guide rail with which the guide wheel comes into contact to thereby guide the vehicle in a running direction are provided on the track along which the vehicle travels. For this reason, the vehicle of the track transportation system travels along the guide rail while the power is supplied by bringing the power collection parts into contact with the trolley wires. The vehicle of the track transportation system is often automatically operated unattended, and there is a risk of snow that has accumulated from a snowfall forming an obstacle in the way of traffic.
To remove such snow, for instance, a device for removing obstacles on a track for a guide rail type vehicle is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2010-241312, and is capable of removing the obstacles on the track such as snow or foreign materials. To be specific, the device for removing obstacles on a track for a guide rail type vehicle, which is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2010-241312, is equipped with frames that are provided in front of wheels in a running direction, and lifting units that are mounted on the frames and raise or lower brush holders holding removal brushes for the obstacles on the track. The device for removing obstacles on a track removes the obstacles on the track by pressing the brush holders downward using the lifting units and bringing the removal brushes into contact with a track surface.
Incidentally, the device described above in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2010-241312 removes the obstacles on the track by pushing the removal brushes by the vehicle in the running direction of the vehicle in a state in which the removal brushes come into contact with the track surface. Therefore, the removal brushes are pushed in the running direction while continuing to be in contact with the track surface, and are damaged by wear. Also, as the removal brushes are damaged due to the wear, a gap occurs between the track surface and the removal brush, and snow that has accumulated thinly on the runways may not be sufficiently removed.